Mr Pulgar says that on that first night they were left alone with him, the priest told the boys in the group to go swimming naked in the pool.

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Mr Pulgar says he was abused by a priest when he was 17

"I and another friend said 'no' but he forced us. He told us that if we didn't do it, it was because we had sexual problems," Mr Pulgar told BBC Mundo.

"He came into the pool and touched us. He said it was good for building trust and self-esteem."

Two months later, Mr Pulgar started studying to become a priest. He says that he also suffered abuse at the seminary.

"They hugged you from behind (…). If you rejected them, they got angry. You were bullied if you didn't allow them to kiss you," he says about his experiences at the seminary.

He remembers a traumatic episode with one particular priest, whom he was helping out in a nearby town.

"He asked me why I didn't want to be 'initiated'. I didn't understand what he meant. He said heterosexuality didn't exist, that we were all gay and had to try everything."

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Mauricio Pulgar says that at the seminary the priests told him to cut his ties with his family, arguing that his mother - a divorcee - was "inferior"

The BBC approached both priests but neither responded to our requests for comment.

The BBC also put Mr Pulgar's allegations to Gonzalo Duarte, who from 1998 until his resignation in June 2018 was bishop of the diocese of Valparaíso.

Valparaíso is the diocese where Mr Pulgar was a seminary student and the alleged abuse took place. However, the incidents took place before Bishop Duarte was put in charge of the diocese.

Bishop Duarte said that he had heard that the priest who had spoken about "initiating" Mr Pulgar had had "serious homosexuality problems" in his new diocese.

But Bishop Duarte told the BBC that as those reports came from another diocese, they did not fall under his supervision.

Mr Pulgar says that the same priest had once asked him to stay overnight in his parish. "He gave me some refreshments and I started feeling sick. He told me: 'Lie down on my bed, get some rest.'"

"I fainted and woke up to the sound of panting. He was abusing me. I tried to move my arms and legs, but I couldn't. I finally was able to move one hand but he grabbed it and…," Mr Pulgar's voice breaks.

"He then opened a drawer full of money and told me I was now part of his circle. I told him I didn't want to belong to any circle and left."

Mr Pulgar eventually left the seminary, but it took him 20 years to open up about what he had gone through. In 2013, he lodged a formal complaint with the Church authorities as well as in a civil court.

Bishop Duarte said that a canonical investigation was carried out, but he told the BBC that there had been "no crime".

The priest in question is now living in a residence where church retreats are held.

'He became obsessed with me'

Sebastián del Río knew he wanted to be a priest from the age of 12 and joined the seminary in 1999, after graduating from high school.

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"It took me a really long time to realise this was sexual abuse", says Sebastián del Río

The seminary's dean was the same priest who Mr Pulgar said had forced him and his friends to get into the pool with him naked six years earlier.

Mr del Río says the dean became obsessed with him. "He used to come to my room for small talk. I started leaving the door open when he came in, I was afraid."

At some point he reported him to the bishop responsible for the seminary, who told him that the dean had "emotional issues".

"I asked what he meant and he told me that the dean had fallen in love with me."

The bishop encouraged Mr del Río to confront the dean. "I thought he was going to deny everything, but instead he started crying. He told me he had never meant to hurt me."

The dean was eventually transferred. He continues to work in a parish to this day.

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Pope Francis summoned all 34 Chilean bishops to Rome and denounced a "culture of abuse and cover-up"

Mr del Río says that after he had finished his studies, Bishop Duarte summoned him to his flat to discuss his ordination.

"We were chatting and he suddenly got half naked and asked me to apply anti-inflammatory ointment on his back. It was so humiliating," Mr del Río recalls.